PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: No change in McCourty's approach

In his fifth NFL season, starting safety Devin McCourty is entering a contract year with the Patriots. He says that won't alter his approach to the game.

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

FOXBORO – Business as usual.That’s the approach veteran defensive back Devin McCourty says he’s taking to his upcoming contract year in New England.

“You just play football,” McCourty said as the Patriots kicked off training camp with Wednesday’s reporting day at Gillette Stadium. “Contract year isn’t what everyone else talks about. For a player, it’s just another year in the league.

“For me, it’s my fifth year in the league. I still want to get better. I think like Ninko (defensive end Rob Ninkovich) was saying, as you get older and year by year, you just want to continue to get better using what you’ve learned mentally and get better physically.

“Luckily for me, I’m not as old as Ninko. He’s 30, so I still have time to improve physically and get bigger, faster and stronger.”

A first-round pick out of Rutgers in the 2010 draft, McCourty has started all 61 NFL games in which he’s appeared with the Patriots, initially at cornerback (where he earned Pro Bowl honors as a rookie), now at the safety position.

Another wide receiver, Tyler McDonald, was released to create room for Orton.

The 28-year-old Orton was originally signed to the Patriots’ practice squad on Dec. 31, 2013, and released May 22 of this year.

No comment: Patriots head coach Bill Belichick refused to comment on the 34 text messages he exchanged with Aaron Hernandez, the Patriots’ former tight end who is charged with the murders of three people in two separate incidents in 2012 and 2013.

“I think that was addressed by a lawyer last week,” said Belichick, “and I don’t have any further comment on it.”

A statement, released by Patriots attorney Andrew Phelan last Friday, read: “Earlier this week, a report indicated that an exchange of text messages between the team’s head coach and Mr. Hernandez totaled 33 pages. While it is unknown how the texts were printed or displayed, I thought it was important to clarify that during an early investigation conducted by state prosecutors, the team produced a total of 34 text messages (not pages of texts) spanning a period of five months (December 2012-May 2013) between the head coach and Mr. Hernandez.”